Eye on environment: Celebrate Bike to Work Month, reduce waste by repairing or donating

May is Bike to Work month, and May 17 is National Bike to Work Day. Health advocates, conservation activists and traffic planners will point out how much money you can save and pollution you can reduce by powering your daily commute through burning calories instead of fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, most commuters’ bicycles will sit gathering dust in their garages, even though barriers to bicycling are being consistently reduced in Ventura County. For example, one of the most common objections, concern about safety, is being addressed by the Ventura County Transportation Commission with new iPhone and Android applications, showing the best bicycle routes. As long as riders plan routes before riding, rather than trying to determine the safest route by looking at their cellphones when they should be watching the road, this could go a long way toward making riders safer.

For some, the barrier to more bicycling is the lack of a good bicycle. New bicycles are expensive, but there are many ways to buy a used bicycle for surprisingly little money. And there are ways to get an even better deal.

Bicycles needing minor repairs generally cannot be sold through conventional channels, so you can get an incredible deal if you do the repairs yourself or pay for repairs.

Where can you get such a bike? Some public agencies still hold live auctions for seized or lost and unreturnable items. Others, including the Ventura County General Services Agency, auction items through a public surplus website, http://www.publicsurplus.com. Last week, that site featured five bicycles, most needing repairs. None were located in Ventura County, but if you sign up at that website for email notification of bicycles available, you will quickly be alerted to nearby opportunities.

Even items used as evidence at trials often go to auction, when they are not claimed after trial. These auctions often include bicycles. Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. Don Aguilar notes bicycles coming into the possession of some law enforcement agencies, through seizure, forfeiture or other circumstances, are often auctioned with other “property room” items through http://www.propertyroom.com. His department also sometimes donates bicycles to nonprofit organizations.

This brings up another good activity to do during Bike to Work Month. If there is no chance you will take that bicycle out of your garage and start riding it, sell or give it away. One good outlet for donation of working bicycles is your local Boys & Girls Club. For example, a few years ago, sheriff’s employees volunteered to fix and clean 11 bicycles, which the department donated to a Boys & Girls Club.

When the sheriff’s office donated the bikes to the Boys & Girls Club in Saticoy, to fairly pick recipients and raise interest in the club, Director Elizabeth Claudio raffled the bikes at three community events. Marcela Gallegos, who worked at the club and is a pastor at the church where the club temporarily relocated due to renovations, recalls the joy of children who received the bicycles.

“Some of these kids came from families that could not afford bicycles, so they were thrilled, and we occasionally still see them riding their bicycles around the neighborhood, sometimes even doing errands for their parents,” Gallegos said.

For Bike to Work Month, keep your eye on the environment by getting exercise during your daily commute. If bicycling is not an option for you, donate working bicycles to a Boys & Girls Club by calling 641-5585.

David Goldstein is an environmental resource analyst for the county of Ventura. Representatives of government or nonprofit agencies who want to submit articles on environmental topics for this column should contact Goldstein at 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.